Rubber-heel protector.



WILLIAM It. HILDEBRAND, 0F CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

RUBBER-HEEL PROTECTOR.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Dec. 30, 1919.

Application led March 31, 1916. Seria! No. 87,915.

To @ZZ whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM R. Hmon- BRAND, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State ofIllinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Rubber-Heel Protectors, of which the following is a s ecification.

y invention relates to resilient or rubber heels and has particularreference to means for protecting' same against wearing out toospeedily. lIhe obj ect of the invention is to provide metallic wearingsurface for rubber heels without unduly interfering with theirelasticity, or with even wearing thereof, or with the uniformity oftheir elasticity throughout the body of the heel at each impact.

With these objects in view the invention consists in the novelconstruction of heel hereinafter described in detail, illustrated in theaccompanying drawing and more particularly pointed out in the appendedclaim.

In the drawing- Figure l is a bottom elevation of a heel 0r other bottomportion of a shoe, embodying my invention.

Fig. 2 is a section on line X-X of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged and broken away section of the heel.

In the several views 2 represents the body of a rubber heel; 3represents one form of metal studs; 4, another form; 5, still anotherform, and 6 a fourth modification.

Each stud comprises a rod 8 bent in U- form having spread apart endswhich ends diverge toward the open end of the U, and prevent accidentaldisplacement or loss of the studs. The stud is molded in; that is, therubber in plastic or semi-liquid form is poured or cast around the lugsin suitable molds provided for this purpose. 9, 9 are counterbores forthe heads of the usual screws engaging holes 10, by means of which theheel 1s secured to the boot or shoe.

The many attempts heretofore made to prevent uneven wearing down of onecorner of a rubber heel has resulted in plates fastened by screws whichinterfered with the elasticity of the area covered by the plate, and,moreover, the screw or spur fastenings have generally failed to hold theplate. In the present invention the metallic Contact points respectivelycover small areas between which there is retained the desired resiliencyor elasticity7 and by confining the tubules, studs, or spurs within ahorizontal area close to the wear surface, leaving a backing of solidrubber, the anti-wear elements cause very little, if any, interferencewith the functions of asolid and unshod rubber heel disk.

By providing this form of metallic contact points, the latter may betempered to any desired extent, because the question of bending strainstendine' to break the metal, is not involved in this form ofconstruction. Except for the brevity of life of a rubber heel its usewould be universal, since it is universally conceded that it ispreferable, more agreeable, and less unduly and unnaturally jarring thanthe leather substitute for natures elastic heel.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secureby Letters Patent- The combination with a rubber heel, of a bar or wirebent U-shape with spread apart ends embedded in the heel, the embeddedportion thereof diverging toward the open end of the U.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto signed my name.

WILLIAM R. HILDEBRAND.

